| Abstract Detail
Mycological Section Hull, Julia [1], Deckert, Ron [2]. Interaction of fungal endophytes and gall-forming aphids on hybrid cottonwood trees. Endophytes are fungi that live within the aerial portions of plants for most or all of their life cycle without causing visible signs of disease. Gall forming aphids, Pemphigus betae, are highly competitive over gall site selection, forming galls on the leaves of narrowleaf cottonwoods and their hybrids. The favored gall location overlaps with areas of highest endophyte probability. I hypothesized that a negative correlation would exist between endophytic infections and aphid galling on leaves of backcross hybrids cottonwood trees. I tested my hypothesis by obtaining samples of six backcross hybrid cottonwood trees along the Weber River in Weber County, Utah from 10 July to 17 July 2013. I took leaf samples of galled and ungalled leaves and the corresponding twigs from the current year and the previous year. Samples were surface sterilized using ethanol and bleach, aseptically plated onto potato dextrose agar, and were allowed four weeks toincubate at room temperature. Samples were scored every other day for endophytes. At the end of four weeks, data were collected and statistical analysis was performed via t-test (Microsoft Excel) and a Chi-squared test. My hypothesis was rejected. I found significantly more endophytes associated with galled leaves than in leaves without galls. Possibly, either the aphids are attracted to the areas with high endophyte infections or the aphids themselves are introducing endophytes into the leaves.
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1 - Weber State Unversitiy, Department of Botany, 674 9th Street, Ogden, UT, 84404, USA
2 - Weber State Unversitiy, Department of Botany, 3848 Harrison Blvd., Ogden, UT, 84404, USA
Keywords:
fungal endophyte
Populus
Pemphigus betae
tripartite symbiosis.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 36
Location: Cottonwoods North/Boise Centre
Date: Wednesday, July 30th, 2014
Time: 8:30 AM
Number: 36001
Abstract ID:54
Candidate for Awards:None |
